For Jordania Yero, Cuban television provides essential distraction from the austerity of the bleak 1960s housing estate where she lives with her family in Santiago, Cuba’s second city. Yero, a 31-year-old information technician, typically watches between three and four hours a day, avidly following everything from cartoons and documentaries to dancing competitions and game shows. Above all, though, she is a fan of the gritty home-grown and imported soap operas shown by Cuba’s state-controlled TV networks.

Latin American popular drama may have a reputation for romanticism acted out badly in a middle-class world way beyond the reach of most viewers. But that kind of content finds no place on Cuba’s five state-run channels. Instead Cubans such as Yero are offered tough, down-to-earth and surprisingly honest shows that deal with everyday issues.